unit 1: what were the different forms of popular culture? Flashcards
what is burke’s definition of culture?
culture is an imprecise term, with different definitions - but ‘a system of shared meanings, attitudes and values, and the symbolic forms in which they are expressed or embodied.’
who belongs to the social non elite?
craftsmen/ peasants/ women/ children/ shepherds/ sailors/ beggars
why can we learn lots from social anthropologists?
they are concerned to understand the whole of an alien society - it focuses on the study of social functions of myths, images and rituals
which period has Burke studied in his book?
1500-1800
where geographically does burke focus his study on?
whole of europe - unreliable.
why does burke end his study where he does?
due to enormous cultural change set in motion by industrialisation
what do we have to ‘think away’ to relate to the culture of the time?
tv, radio, cinema, railways, universal education, literacy, class consciousness, nationalism, confidence in progress, science and technology.
who is thomas fudge?
historian: “while a number of feasible theses have been advanced on a european scale, numerous micro-histories have often moderated larger ambitious claims. it seems judicious to repeat the one consistency to emerge, which is inconsistency. in other words, a single pattern, procedure, definition, or explanation for witch hunting has yet to emerge. a unified theory has proven elusive.”
modern views on culture:
historians now distinguish a wide variety of different cultures with huge regional variations (peter burke wrote his account in 1978)
by the late 16th century, partly as a result of increased literacy (following the invention of the printed book), cultures evolved far more quickly than in the past.
what was common culture like?
image by flemmish arist pieter bruegel ‘battle beween carnivan and lent’ and it does give a glimpse of ordinary people’s clothes, dances, gestures and attitudes but it can be interpreted in various ways. some say it captures the variation of mood and material circumstances of the renaissance world and that it highlights social tension.
different types of culture
